Obama’s Advice to the Next President: Find “Quirkier” News Outlets

When it come to getting out his message, President Barack Obama has more choices than any president in American history. Obama recently tried out a new delivery method: sitting down with Vox’s Ezra Klein and Matthew Yglesias for an extended conversation that ranged from domestic to foreign policy. Vox created some genuinely engaging videos—some of which were posted directly to Facebook, a growing trend among outlets eager to align with the social network’s push for native video—and posted a transcript of the conversation.

When asked how he would suggest his successor work to stem the ever-rising tide of political polarization in the United States, Obama suggested that the establishment media has been a factor in pushing Democrats and Republicans further apart. Polls show that Obama is on track to be the most polarizing president since such data was measured, but also show that George W. Bush and Bill Clinton were the second- and third-most polarizing.

“But a lot of it has to do with the fact that (a) the balkanization of the media means that we just don't have a common place where we get common facts and a common worldview the way we did 20, 30 years ago,” Obama said. “And that just keeps on accelerating, you know. And I'm not the first to observe this, but you've got the Fox News/Rush Limbaugh folks and then you've got the MSNBC folks and the—I don't know where Vox falls into that, but you guys are, I guess, for the brainiac-nerd types. But the point is that technology which brings the world to us also allows us to narrow our point of view.” (Obama also noted that gerrymandering, the process by which congressional districts are shaped, is also partly to blame.)

As Obama noted, he’s done his best to seek alternative forms of dialogue with the public. He recently sat down for interviews with YouTube stars, he has done Facebook Q&As, and his administration makes ample use of Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail—all as a means of trying to get their message out unfiltered. “So my advice to a future president is increasingly try to bypass the traditional venues that create divisions and try to find new venues within this new media that are quirkier, less predictable,” Obama said.

While it’s true that technology has fragmented the media landscape, it is a bit odd to suggest that the solution is to turn to the newest iteration of distribution platforms as an answer. As Obama’s half-joking characterization of Vox reveals, he knows that emerging media outlets also have their own identities and political leanings. Facebook and YouTube (which is owned by Google) have impressive political lobbying operations. What's glossed over in Obama’s description of the divide between old and new media is that the administration has an incentive in reaching young voters, who are more likely to flock to social media networks and viral-friendly outlets such as BuzzFeed.

Obama’s technophilia is good news for the likes of Vox, which is about one year old, and BuzzFeed, which recently notched a win for its news operation when it was announced that editor Ben Smith will also sit down with the president. That said, Obama has certainly conducted more interviews with the establishment press (typically made up of newspapers, magazines, and broadcast-news networks), and he’s still picky when it comes to digitally native enterprises (he has never granted an interview to the Huffington Post, for example).